The Giallo Zone

INTRODUCTION

The giallo (plural: gialli) is a particularly Italian form of violent thriller popularised by directors like Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi and particularly Dario Argento and Mario Bava. The word giallo means yellow in Italian and its use as a descriptor for this genre derives from a series of melodramatic thriller novels published in Italy by Mondadori in distinctive bright yellow jackets.

The gialli were hugely successful, particularly in the late 50s and early 60s, punters drawn by their lurid covers and their salacious mix of sex and violence. They seemed a natural for translation to the screen, though curiously few of the films that we now know and love as gialli are actually adapted from the popular novels.

It's now widely accepted that the first true cinematic giallo was Mario Bava's excellent La ragazza che sapeva troppo (1962), released overseas as The Evil Eye or The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Though owing much to Alfred Hitchcock and the German krimi thrillers derived from the works of Edgar Wallace, La ragazza retains a uniquely Italianate sensibility and is very much the bedrock on which the entire genre has been built. Many of the key elements of the gialli were present and correct in this fledgling offering - the character who sees or hears something that they can't quite recall; the complex plotting (to become quite tortuous in later films); the positioning of just about every male character as a viable suspect; the melding of tropes drawn from both horror and thriller traditions. All that's missing here are the characters that - in later gialli - were frequently artists, writers or musicians and almost exclusively middle class.

Bava followed La ragazza che sapeva troppo with the stunning Sei donne per l'assassino / Blood and Black Lace (1964) which did even more to set the giallo bandwagon in motion. It refined the themes and elements that would come to define the genre and further pushed the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable in terms of sex and violence - so much so that it was cut in the UK and US. Apart from being a quite amazing film in its own right, Sei donne introduced the one element of the gialli that has constantly frustrated those who have failed to warm to the genre's charms - the ridiculous plot made palatable by an incredible eye for detail and a visual style rare in screen horror.

Sei donne simply oozes style from every frame - Bava's background as both a painter and a cinematographer is evident throughout and the use of colour, shadows, framing and sound influenced a whole generation of horror directors. Watch any film by Dario Argento, or the earlier works of Brian De Palma, Sean S. Cunningham or John Craven for proof of that. The plot can't take too close scrutiny but the verve with which the film is put together more than compensates - later, gialli would often stand or fall on the strength of their technical merits rather than on their scripts.

The release of Sei donne per l'assassino inspired a whole glut of gialli, some mediocre, some very good indeed. Among the gems from this first phase of the gialli include the extraordinary La morte ha fatto l'uovo / A Curious Way to Love / Death Laid an Egg (1967) and Umberto Lenzi's Orgasmo (1968) and Cosi dolce, cosi perversa (1969) (don't write the man off if all you've seen are his later gore films - he was capable of so much more). But by the end of the decade, the writing was already on the wall for the giallo. Inspired by the Fumetti, the violent and erotic Italian comics, the screen gialli were starting to push even further at the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable and something new was called for, a new voice that would pick up the challenge laid down by Bava and move it into a new decade.

That voice was found in critic turned scriptwriter turned director Dario Argento. His debut film, L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo / The Bird With the Crystal Plummage is as brilliant a film as anything Bava had made, a brash, confident calling card that revitalised many of the already tired giallo tropes. The bar was raised considerably by Argento who would come to be the international poster boy for the giallo as his complex, super-stylish and challenging films spread around the world.

His initial 'animal trilogy' - he followed L'uccello with Il gatto a nove code / Cat O'Nine Tails (1971) and Quattro mosche di velluto grigio / Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) - kick started a whole new wave of gialli, and the Italian screens were suddenly awash with masked killers, contrived motivations and pounding jazz / rock soundtracks. Many of these films were ridiculously overwrought, with plots that frequently demanded copious note-taking to keep track of who was doing what to who, but they were also among the most stylish genre films ever made. Sergio Martino soon joined the fray with Lo strano vizo della Signora Wardh / Next (1970), stirring in more sex and violence than Argento's relatively restrained works had to offer, and he was soon another key player in the development of the giallo with the likes of La coda dello scorpione / Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1970) and I corpi presentano trace di violenza carnale / Torso (1973). Bava was also still at it with Cinque bambole per la luna d'agosto / Five Dolls For an August Moon (1970) and the hugely influential Ecologia del delitto / Bay of Blood / Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) which was mercilessly ransacked for ideas by the American slasher films of the late 70s and early 80s.

Even Italian veterans like Lucio Fulci (Una lucertola con la pelle di donna / A Lizard In a Womans Skin (1971), Non si sevizia un paperino / Don't Torture a Duckling (1972), Sette note in nero / The Psychic (1977)) and Antonio Margheriti (La morte negli occhi del gatto / Seven Dead in the Cat's Eye (1973)) got in the act. The boundaries of acceptability were given an extra nudge by the unsettling Cosa avete fatto a Solange? / What Have They Done to Solange? (1971), a brutal masterpiece that still makes for difficult and uncomfortable viewing after all these years.

Given the sheer numbers of gialli that were reaching Italian screens in the early 1970s, it was inevitable that the genre should burn-out as quickly as it rose. The plethora of gialli on offer simply exposed the limitations of the genre and film-makers were forced to resort to more outrageous plots and increasing levels of sex and violence to keep the public's interest up. The films had started to seep out abroad and were picking up a small but loyal fanbase, though it wasn't until the early 80s and the arrival of home video that the gialli really got the international exposure they deserved.

By 1975, the giallo bubble was about to burst - The Exorcist had shaken up the horror genre and audiences were suddenly after more supernatural flavoured thrills and the gialli were starting to look tired by comparison. But just before the genre went belly up, it produced its finest film - Argento's magnificent Profondo rosso / Deep Red (1975). It was, in many ways, the last hurrah for the giallo, but what an incredible way to go! Everything that Argento had been working on so far had been leading him to Profondo rosso, the perfect distillation not only of his own technique but of everything that made the gialli so enjoyable. Scored to an outstanding prog-rock score from Goblin and brim full of audacious camerawork and set design, Argento transcended the thinness of the plot to create one of the finest horror films ever made.

Profondo rosso made an international star of Argento but it was clear that the giallo had now gone about as far as it could - even Argento would temporarily abandon the genre in favour of the more fantasy oriented Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980), before returning to his giallo roots with Tenebre (1982). Argento would remain the standard bearer for the giallo, continually refining the genre in Phenomena / Creepers (1985), Opera / Terror at the Opera (1987), Trauma (1993), La sindrome di Stendhal (1996), Nonhosonno (2001) and Il cartaio / The Card Player (2004).

After Profondo rosso, anything was going to look a little disappointing and sure enough, subsequent gialli were very much also-rans in a race that had been conclusively won. Gialli continued to be made right through to the end of the 70s and there were even some good ones, including Pupi Avati's fabulous La casa dalle finestre che ridono / The House With The Laughing Windows (1976) and and Alberto Negrin's Enigma rosso / Rings of Fear (1978). But by the time the 80s came around, things were looking very bad indeed for the giallo.

Lucio Fulci's infamous Lo squartatore di New York / The New York Ripper (1982) was the last gasp of a once great genre - it's ludicrous, offensive and not terribly well made but compared to the non-Argento produced junk that followed, it's a masterpiece. As the Italian popular cinema collapsed during the 70s and the once great names of Italian exploitation either died, retired or retreated to television, the giallo just about curled up and died. What few were made barely surfaced outside Italy and when they did they made nothing like the impact that the 70s films had made.

The rise of DVD in the early 00s gave new life to many of the classic gialli and a whole new generation of fans fell under their sleazy, violent, irresistible spell. Even the worst of them is worth a look and at their best, they were among the most exciting, provocative and unusual genre films ever.
KEVIN LYONS

Click here for the full giallo filmography

Last Updated: 15 October, 2009